Weatherscan
Weatherscan (originally called Weatherscan Local) is a TV channel offered by TWC. The channel is carried on select cable systems in the United States. The channel features uninterrupted local weather information, with graphics on a continuous loop. All content is produce by a computer @ the cable company's headend & unlike TWC, Weatherscan does not feature any OCM's of any kind. It uses a slightly-modified version of the IntelliStar weather information system used for the main TWC channel. However, unlike TWC's Intellistar, it uses different graphics, features some additional weather products & runs continously. Until November 10, 2015, a pre-recorded narration noted when several segments appeared - including "Your Current Conditions", "The Local Doppler Radar" & "Your Local Forecast". The narration was not the same as TWC's local forecasts & used a female announcer. This is now discontinued and the only Vocal Local heard on Weatherscan is Jim Cantore's messages when the weather bulletin appears with a weather alert from the National Weather Service. Weatherscan used to be available in many top markets around the US, but in recent years, many cable headends have been phasing out Weatherscan from their digital cable lineup, although a few smaller cable headends still have the channel on their basic cable lineup. Verizon FiOS no longer carries Weatherscan or TWC as of March 10, 2015 at 12:00 AM, DISH Network no longer offers Weatherscan as of June 24, 2015, Cox Communications discontinued their Weatherscan feed on May 14, 2016, and Comcast/Xfinity stopped carrying Weatherscan on December 10, 2017 at around 2:44 PM, making Weatherscan increasingly absent on some of the top 5 TV cable providers. Interesting to note, federal law requires that a cable system allows one to get certain basic cable (local broadcast channels & public, educational & governmental (PEG) channels) & digital service without subscribing to expanded service where TWC is often carried. Weatherscan can be seen on: *Local providers (ex. Time Warner, Charter) Former availability of Weatherscan: *Verizon FiOS: Channel 49 (terminated March 10, 2015) *Cox Communications (terminated May 14, 2016) *Xfinity/Comcast (phased out through October/November 2017, terminated December 10, 2017) Weatherscan's Packages Weatherscan has a variety of segments that show different information regarding the weather. Below are a list of known packages on Weatherscan & some brief information about them. Note that some Weatherscans do not carry some of these packages. Your Local Forecast The local forecast is a segment that all Weatherscans have. It includes local weather data, including current conditions, local radar & 5-day forecast. Your Local Radar The local radar segment shows the local doppler radar looping continuously for 1 minute. Traffic Report The top 40 markets have the traffic report on Weatherscan. This package includes local traffic delays & traffic flow. Airport Conditions The airport segment shows local airport delays & weather conditions for 2 airports in the headend's metropolitan area. It also has a list of delays for major airports throughout the nation. This is one of the segments that most Weatherscans carry. Travel Forecast This segment is ideal for individuals who plan to travel. The travel segment shows regional forecast maps & a 3-day forecast for select cities nationwide. As with the airport segment, travel is one of the most common segments on Weatherscan. International Forecast People who plan to travel around the globe can watch the international forecast for weather for select cities worldwide. Weather and Your Health Weather & your health displays a variety of health-related forecasts, including air quality, UV index & sun safety information. Ski and Snow (seasonal) The skier's forecast shows a list of ski resorts & their conditions throughout the country for those who plan to hit the slopes. It also includes a snowfall forecast map. Golf Forecast (seasonal) The golfer's forecast includes the forecast for golf courses & resorts as well as a golf index & tee time forecast. Garden (seasonal) Garden is a rare segment that very few headends carry. This package contains information for lawn & gardening activities. It includes a precipitation forecast map, a drought severety map among other maps. Boat and Beach (seasonal) Boat & beach is only available for select headends in coastal locations. It includes marine forecast, tidal information & surf reports. Weatherscan Timeline 1999 * Weatherscan Local debuts, showing only a 2-minute local forecast back-back. The only song that was played was a 2-minute cut of "Fair Weather" by Trammell Starks. Late 2000 * Weatherscan Local gets a new look. The weather icons' animation was removed (they were animated prior to this update) & are now still icons. * New products are added to several Weatherscan Locals nationwide, including health, airports, Spanish forecast, among others. Some Weatherscans have been reported to still show only the local forecast back-back. * As for the music, an entire album of Trammell Starks music is now played, previously it only played one of his songs. A few cable headends didn't get this update until late 2002. 2001 * Weatherscan Local's local forecast now comes directly from TWC, previously from NWS. This has occurred to Weatherscan Local earlier than the WeatherStar's used on TWC. September 27, 2003 * Weatherscan Local has been simplified to "Weatherscan" & has received entirely new graphics. The weather icons once again become animated & the graphics are a lot more superior than it's older version. * A "severe weather mode" was added to Weatherscan during this upgrade. The yellow, blue colors become red & gray & it only shows the local forecast & a severe weather message saying "Weatherscan gives you this special message because of severe weather in your area". * Weatherscan gets new music, now featuring tracks by unknown production music companies. * The narration by "Local on the 8's" announcer Allen Jackson is replaced with female narration by Amy Bargeron. * The narration for the 36-hour forecast is changed from "the forecast for your area" to "your local forecast". Early 2004 * The first signs of the music "skipping" are heard on Weatherscan. Eventually, the music started skipping more often. Early-mid August 2004 * Weatherscan's font becomes bolder. * A fade in-fade out effect was added in between each day on the 36-hour forecast. * The local radar is enhanced, now showing more major roads on the radar & city identifiers that are closer to the domestic InteliStar's. * The local radar now shows the precipitation moving within the past 3 hours instead of 2. * The music has been fixed show it does not skip. * Some icons, such as "AM Clouds/PM Sun" & the nighttime "Mostly Clear" are updated so they are identical to the icons on the IntelliStar. February 17, 2005 * The 36-hour forecast now becomes a 48-hour local forecast, now showing the forecast for today up to the next day's night. * The point size of the text on the local forecast becomes larger, now bigger than the "Local Forecast" title heading. * Some songs on Weatherscan have been replaced with new ones. * During severe weather mode, Weatherscan now shows only the local radar, weather bulletins (if a weather watch or statement is issued) & the special weather message. July 2005 * A "traffic report" was added to Weatherscans on the top viewing markets such as Philadelphia, Pittsburgh & Atlanta showing the traffic conditions from Traffic Pulse for a city's metropolitan area. Also, a 1-minute long local radar segment has been added to Weatherscans nationwide. * The Weatherscan in Frankfort, Kentucky had a travel forecast for 2 weeks then was never seen again until May 2008. September 27, 2005 * Weatherscan receives a bold new look in accordance with TWC's new logo & graphics. An "L-bar" was added, that shows instant information to viewers, which is much similar to NBC Wx+. Current conditions, extended forecast, local radar & local observations are now shown constantly to the viewer. * More narration is added to Weatherscan, such as narration to the local radar, traffic segment, among other segments. * The severe weather message is changed to "Weatherscan/ bring you this message because of severe weather in your area". * Note: Areas that were in Hurricane Rita's path received this Weatherscan update about a week earlier. December 2005 * A traffic.com advertisement graphic is added @ the end of the traffic report segment. * The narration for the "traffic flow" screen is removed. March 2006 * More songs are removed & more new ones have been added to Weatherscan. April 2006 * HiRAD technology begins to be introduced into some Weatherscans. August 2006 * Due to the discontinuation of P. Allen Smith's garden segments on TWC, the P. Allen Smith advertisement @ the end of the garden segment is replaced with a generic weather.com/garden advertisement. December 12, 2006 * Weather icons that have been in use on Weatherscan from 1999-2006 were replaced by more realistic icons. * The slashes for phrases such as "Partly Cloudy/Wind" on the extended & daypart forecasts are replaced by commas (e.g. "Partly Cloudy, Wind"). January 23, 2007 * As with the TWC IntelliStar, the Weatherscan radar has been changed. "Light" & "Heavy" changed to "rain", "mix" & "snow" were added. The color key was removed from the mini-radar in the corner of the screen. May 22, 2007 * The radar legend becomes interactive with the precipitation. The snow & mix color keys now only display if frozen precipitation is detected. October 24, 2007 * The traffic overview map on Weatherscans with this segment is updated to match the map on the domestic IntelliStar. November 5, 2007 * Several new songs were added to the music loop and some were removed. Mid-November 2015 * The female narrations were removed and Jim Cantore's narration "The National Weather Service has issued a weather bulletin" were added. National Feed Since Weatherscan Local's debut, there has been a national version of this channel that is used for satellite companies & smaller cable companies that cannot afford Weatherscan Local. This channel features current temperatures & the forecast for the next several days for select cities throughout the USA, as well as national & regional radar images. This channel is named simply Weatherscan. There is uncertainty whether or not the national version was discontinued. However, since Weatherscan Local simplified it's name to "Weatherscan" in 2003, it's likely that the national feed was discontinued during or around that time. Gallery Wxscanis2.jpg|The initial version of Weatherscan IntelliStar, used from September 2005 until December 2006. Wxscan2004.JPG|The previous look of Weatherscan, from early 2003 until late 2005. 800px-Wxscanxl.jpg|Weatherscan XL from late 2000 until September 2003. Wxscanis3.jpg|A minor upgrade to the 2005 version. Weatherscan_2010-.jpg|The Current look of Weatherscan (the Comcast logo has been changed to white, and the colored bars near ``Past 3 hours`` have been moved. 220px-Wxscannational.jpg|Weatherscan's national feed from December 2000. See also *The Weather Channel *IntelliStar *WeatherStar XL *WeatherStar *WeatherStar Jr. External links * TWC's Website * Weatherscan page @ weather.com Category:TV Channels